Richard Pelzer Biography

I, Richard Pelzer was born on June 16, 1965 in San Francisco, California. I was born as the fourth son in a family with 5 sons.I am now in my forties and I don't have the best education. I didn't apply himself in school because of my family and personal issues. I am a victim of child abuse and lived through years and years of it, and the memories still haunt me to this day. I started to grow up in a loving, caring family until my mom started to drink. After my mom became a vicious drunk, she started to abuse my brother David. My dad and the rest of the kids stayed out of the way and occasionally took a lash of violence, but never as bad as David. I watched my brother be on the verge of dying from my mom's violent outbreaks and drunken actions and never thought the same would be happening to me. When David was saved by the authorities, our dad died leading to our mom becoming even more abusive. Soon after David left, I got to know what David had been living for so many years.

I became the focal point of her rages. At a young age, under the age of 8, I started to get beaten, and starved, and tortured because she was drunken off her mind. I never talked to anyone about it, I knew they wouldn't do anything. I got into his teen years and began to fall under the wrong influences. I abused drugs and alcohol to hide my pain and anger. I slowly kept using more and more until I was almost always high. I then moved to a new state with my so called "family". I then attempted suicide and was really close to it but, that night I met my saving grace. One of our neighbors, John and Darlene, became close with me and I looked up to them and their family. I went over there all the time and tried to change for the better but could never shake off my old habits. I then became done with being embarrassed by my mom, and thinking my neighbors stopped liking me so I used a deadly mix of drugs that was close to killing me. I was sent to a rehab center for about two weeks then sent back home. After being home for a while, I decided to take the opportunity to go to a rehab center in Hawaii where I could save myself.

I got into trouble there but then got the help I needed when my counselor finally believed me about how my mom treated me and how my life has been. After staying at this center for a while, I became a new person. I went home for a while and learned that John and Darlene had moved, and then I got into a deep talk with my mom about the past. I learned that she was so drunk that she can't remember anything from my childhood, or how she treated David and me. I decided to make the better decision and to ask John and Darlene if I could move with them, and they said yes! I lived with them from then on and became a part of their family. They became the family I never had, and I completely forgot about my "Mom". But, when Darlene and John moved again, I was completely on my own. I managed to find a job, friends and a place to live but I also found more than that. The more time I spent alone, I realized who he really was. A girl I met, a girl that became a close friend to me, showed me how to find myself and discover all the opportunities in life. When I met her, I realized what a true, real friendship was. This is something I cherished forever. When she moved away, I continued on my quest to find myself and discover what I was meant to be. After a while, I discovered the key to all my pain and fears. This helped me write a Christmas letter to my mom explaining exactly how I felt and what I thought of everything that happened.

I held on to it for a while, preparing myself to let go of all the hurt. When I finally sent the letter, I got a call the next day from my brother Ross, telling me that our mom had passed away. I wasn't sure how to handle this. Then, I went to the funeral and saw her one last time. This was also the first time I saw my brother David in years. When they were getting ready to cremate her, I asked them for one favor. I asked them to burn the letter I wrote her with her. They did this, and from that moment on..I was finally free.

Daly City, San Francisco, California

When I lived in San Francisco, my moms abuse started. This is where I started out a happy little kid in a perfect family, then my mom got drunk and started to beat and abuse David, then me. I was to young to fight back, so during this time, it was all physical and emotional. David found his saving grace and left. I was still stuck in this torture chamber of a household, stuck in a twisted, dysfunctional family.

Salt Lake City, Utah

When me and my "family" moved to Utah, the abuse continued. I kept my old drug and alcohol habits strong, and the abuse didn't stop. My mom was unable to physically abuse me since I was bigger and stronger than her now, but the emotional abuse hit me everyday. This is the city where I almost took my own life several time, but Darlene and John saved me. This is the city that started my recovery to being a normal human being.